Experiencing Art and Architecture: Lessons on Looking

Description

In this book, Sanda Iliescu brings aesthetics back into the conversation, exploring the subject through compelling examinations of lived experiences of works of art and architecture. Iliescu examines the ways we look deeply at art and how to bring more meaning to our experience, forming in-depth discussions often overlooked. Focusing on the concept of the figure-ground problem, she challenges this foundational Gestalt principle’s presumed hierarchies and probes its complexity and nuance, showing how a new and more dynamic understanding can enrich our multisensory experiences of art, architecture, and the world around us. Featuring extensive images throughout, it discusses artworks by Rembrandt, Matisse, Eva Hesse, Louise Nevelson, Helen Frankenthaler, and David Hammons; the architecture of Zaha Hadid, Weiss/Manfredi, Latz+Partner, and Peter Zumthor; and non-Western works such as a thirteenth century Chinese vase, the dry garden at Ryoanji, and Hasegawa Tōhaku’s Pine Trees. Personal and engaging, this book is for a wide audience of those practicing, studying or with an interest in the creative fields, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Cover Endorsement Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Illustrations Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction The Ground Figures and Grounds Form and Meaning What This Book Is and What It Is Not Why I Write About Forms Notes 1 Play Forms Rules Pleasure Serious Play Notes 2 Architecture The Poetics of Architecture A Roman Walk: From the Pantheon to Piazza Sant’ Ignazio Nolli’s Map The Architectural Experience Notes 3 Emptiness Dark Emptiness Chiaroscuro The Figure-Ground Problem Silence Dark Grounds Notes 4 The Space Between The Figure-Ground Problem Ma Ma and Negative Space A Pine Grove A Dry Garden Notes 5 Fields What Is a Field? Fields and Figures Fields and Figure-Ground Reversals Louise Nevelson: Sky Cathedral Eva Hesse: Right After and “Rope Piece” Fields in Architecture Zaha Hadid: A Contemporary Arts Center Notes 6 Mistakes A Florentine Pavement The Chinese Vase Lapis Lazuli Errors By Design Brother Klaus Field Chapel Fountains Openness Notes 7 Transparency Bramante’s Balustrade Three Paintings Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi: Phenomenal Transparency On a Reclaimed Urban Site Notes 8 The Past Two Birds A Beautiful Place? Notes 9 Abundance Allegories Gardens Ampertshousen: A New Wall Made of Old Materials Saarbrücken: Threads Leading Back in Time Duisburg Nord: An Aesthetic of Relationships Notes Index